Online advertising may represent a cost-efficient strategy to increase consumer demand for smoking cessation treatments. Otherwise, evaluation relies on the number of individuals who make an initial call to a cessation program and on responses to questions such as “How did you hear of our program?” which may be affected by errors in recall when multiple media campaigns are running simultaneously. For television advertising, gross rating points (GRPs) provide an estimate of the percentage of the target audience reached by an advertisement. It is difficult to randomize to conditions, to control for “spillover” of media into control markets, or to determine how many people actually viewed a billboard or listened to a radio advertisement (ie, the “true denominator” ). From the smoker’s perspective, access to cessation services is one-step-removed, requiring the smoker to write down contact information or to remember a call to action.Įvaluation of the performance of traditional media is challenging as well. There is little flexibility with most traditional media formats since it is difficult and costly to switch approaches (eg, changing messages, altering ad content) once funds are spent. Mass media approaches tend to yield the lowest participation rates in community-based cessation trials (compared to telephone and other interpersonal methods), reaching only 2.2% of targeted smokers. However, there are a number of limitations to traditional media, including costs that can be prohibitive. Systematic reviews have shown that traditional mass media approaches are effective in increasing treatment utilization and in promoting tobacco cessation when combined with telephone counseling. Historically, consumer demand for cessation treatments has been largely a function of marketing and promotion via traditional media (ie, television, newspaper, radio). The National Institutes of Health State-of-the-Science panel on tobacco called for research to “understand the role of different media in increasing consumer demand for and use of effective, individually oriented tobacco cessation treatments for diverse populations”. Recent expert panels have called for innovative initiatives to increase consumer demand for cessation treatments. The population impact (reach × efficacy ) of cessation treatments could be dramatically increased by increasing the reach and utilization of evidence-based interventions such as telephone- and Web-based programs. Despite the availability of effective smoking cessation treatments, only one in five smokers use proven cessation aids when attempting to quit.
Less than 5% of smokers are able to quit on their own.